Tag Archive | "refining-operations"
Oil Drops 14%, Gas Only 3.4% – Fuel Prices Vary Significantly
"There's an old saying in [the] gasoline [industry]," Judy Dugan, research director for Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, Calif., said Monday. "Prices go up like a rocket and down like a feather. There is a higher disconnect between the actual price of oil and the price of gasoline." Gasoline prices have been viewed as the "last bastion of competition," Dugan said, "but in this case that appears to have failed." Still, gasoline prices in the state vary significantly.
Continue reading...Gasoline Pump Prices Line Refiners’ Pockets
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The financial news today is that oil prices are down below $90 a barrel from over $100, and futures market prices for gasoline are down 5% to below $3.00 a gallon. Will that translate to big savings at the pump? Don’t bet on it, at least not for long. OilWatchdog has watched for years as [...]
Continue reading...Chevron Witness Pay: Is It Really Hush Money?
Monday, April 18, 2011
Chevron's army of lawyers isn't its only weapon in staving off the demand of Ecuadoran peasants that the company clean up its toxic drilling mess in the Amazon. Chevron is also happy to use deception, secret video and dirty tricksters. The problem with tricksters, however, is that it can be hard to keep them in the fold, and they can be so darned greedy. Consider the tale of secret videotaper Diego Borja, and the "expense money"of at least $169,000 that Chevron has heaped on him since August 2009.
Continue reading...Gas Prices Keep Soaring As U.S. Fuels Other Countries’ Growth
Monday, April 11, 2011
California-based nonprofit, Consumer Watchdog, recently provided a clue to where the "missing" gasoline may have gone. Recently, Judy Dugan, a petroleum market commentator for Consumer Watchdog, noted that the shares of oil refiners jumped in price last month "on bets that Japan would soon have to import a lot more heating oil and gasoline because of refinery fires and quake/ tsunami damage."
Continue reading...Near Record High Gas Prices Not About Unrest In Middle East
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Consumer Watchdog's Jamie Court discusses why the spike in gas prices - especially in California - has nothing to do with civil unrest, and everything to do with profiteering.
Continue reading...Why California Drivers Pay More For Gasoline
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The new blends cost an estimated 5 to 15 cents more to make per gallon than standard-issue, regular gas. Plus, California became dependent on a limited number of refineries, and those refineries reaped higher profit margins than similar facilities elsewhere in the United States. "It's a stranded market, and it's much easier to control prices in a stranded market," said Judy Dugan, research director of the Consumer Watchdog nonprofit group.
Continue reading...Facts of Life On High Gas Prices: It’s the Speculators & Oil Companies To Blame Not Middle East
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
While skirmishes in Libya and uncertainty in the Middlie East are nice cover for outrageous gasoline prices, the fact is the same old suspects are making a killing from sky-high gas prices approaching $4 dollars per gallon in California: big oil companies and greedy speculators.
Continue reading...What BP’s Secrecy on Payout Deals Sacrifices
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
We've reported about what's wrong in the secrecy around BP's payments to Kenneth Feinberg and his law firm, which is doling out compensation for BP's devastating oil spill in the Gulf. Monday, though, the Center for Justice and Democracy got deep into the guts of the matter.
Continue reading...Spill Commission Defends Its Top Lawyer
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The panel named by President Obama to investigate the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout on Tuesday rejected a call by a consumer activist group for the resignation of its chief counsel, Fred H. Bartlit Jr. The group, Consumer Watchdog, said that the panel should dismiss Mr. Bartlit because his law firm, Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, once represented Halliburton, one of the companies involved in drilling the BP well.
Continue reading...Obama Should Stop BP Fund Administrator Feinberg From Giving Chamber Of Commerce Keynote Or Fire Him, Watchdog Says
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Washington, DC -- Consumer Watchdog asked President Obama to force BP Fund Administrator Kenneth Feinberg to withdraw from a keynote address Wednesday at a Chamber of Commerce group dedicated to eviscerating spill victims’ legal rights, and to fire Feinberg if he refuses.
Continue reading...Tesoro Banks On High Gas Prices In California, Touts “West Coast Premium”
Monday, October 18, 2010
Consumer Group Calls On Pension Funds to Divest From Prop 23 Backers Tesoro, Valero Santa Monica, CA – Consumer advocates revealed an investor slide presentation by Texas-based oil company Tesoro explaining that oil refiners keep gasoline supplies especially tight on the West Coast to keep profits high through higher pump prices. The slides were included in a letter from Consumer Watchdog to California’s large public pension funds, known as CalPERS and CalSTRS, calling on the funds to divest from Tesoro and another refiner, Valero, which are the chief sponsors of Proposition 23 on the November ballot. The Investment Committee of CalPERS is meeting in Long Beach today.
Continue reading...Consumer Watchdog Exposes Koch Industries on Times Square Superscreen For Pollution, Tea Party Funding, and Climate Change Denial Using Coke Parody
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
New York, NY -- A national consumer group is running a 30 second commercial on a Times Square Superscreen that challenges Koch Industries, "the largest oil company you've never heard of," for its record of environmental degradation, political influence, Tea Party funding and climate change denial.
Continue reading...Study: Texas-Based Valero Gouging California Drivers For A Decade
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Top Prop 23 Funder Doesn’t Want Greentech Competition To Get in Way of Profiteering Santa Monica, CA – A new report by Consumer Watchdog's OilWatchdog.org project finds that Valero Energy reaped over $4.5 billion in refining profit while gouging California motorists since it bought its second California refinery in 2002. The oil refining giant, which is also the largest funder of Proposition 23, averaged 37% higher margins on each barrel of oil it refined in California than at refineries it owns elsewhere in the country, according to data published in company financial reports.
Continue reading...
- Study: Texas-Based Valero Gouging California Drivers For A Decade
- Why Is Gasoline Price Staying High?
- Wall Street Oil Speculators Hurt Families, U.S. Economy
- Taking on Koch Industries in Times Sq.
- Absolute Gasoline Price Record in 2011?
- Piter: We should prevent water pollution. Its now a very ...
- Florine Canzoneri: Thanks for your write-up. I have always observed t...
- emoconclusiones: :)...
- Rob: A very juvenile wish list from someone who lacks t...
- Rob: You're blaming oil companies for high prices. This...
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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